Sunday, October 26, 2008

People in my research group are tired of hearing the phrases that either meaning is constructed out of experience, or it is constructed out of analogies. Over and over they have heard the phrase: "consider DNA: DNA is like a zipper, computer code, etc..." (I think I can safely assume readers of this blog know the drill.). Right after the DNA thing: I ask, now, what's this thing called a collateralized debt obligation that's just bringing the whole financial meltdown? And we get astonished faces as nobody has any good analogy (or anchors in semantic space--a rather technical name for it).

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

With all the turmoil going on in the world of finance & economics, with the sh*t about to hit the fan, Lehman Brothers gone, and worst-case scenarios rapidly unfolding, slashdot should take a serious look at this. Slashdot needs a finance/economics section, for at least two reasons: (i) whatever happens in Finance and Economics will reflect on the tech/science scenario soon; (ii) there are loads of geeky Finance and quant Economists already there.